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CVG: Wii U launch supply in UK as low as 25000 units

M

MicH

Member
Urgh, why do I have a feeling that Amazon UK might not be getting a lot - and thus me not getting it at launch. Especially because I preordered four days after they became available.
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
it was inevitable


good thing I preordered mine from amazon.it. i will get it maybe not on launch day, but at least I'll get it (and cheaper)
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
BGBW said:
I don't think anyone is worried about not getting it, they just want it on launch.
Click to expand...

haha yeah, it did seem I implied they will never get it


Mdk7 said:
Italy's gonna be in shortage as well.
Click to expand...


amazon is sold out since, basically, the day after I got mine, so it could very well be that there will be low shipments in the rest of yurop too
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
I remember similar numbers being thrown about before the Wii launch, it was bollocks and there was over 100k for launch day, Nintendo's shipment forecast for the financial year suggests supply should be similar to the Wii and I don't think anyone who has ordered with a reputable firm will have a problem, most retailers seem to have restricted packs available and these will probably be gone in the next week or so
 
F

F#A#Oo

Banned
FUD.

You can still pre-order with certain retailers for release day so I doubt this piece of news.

That being said if a few people after reading this go out and pre-order may be there will be shortages. Power of media and all that.
 
C

Chû Totoro

Member
Kouriozan said:
Strange that France is getting 10x that amount.
Click to expand...

Vive la France !

liberte.jpg
 
L

Lyude77

Member
PowderedToast said:
good, cos we don't buy games or consoles anymore
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, UK sales have been abysmal. They should ship half of those to the US or another European country that buys stuff. I'm just joking, mainly, but if some UK stores still have preorders, and the stock is this low...
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
Lyude77 said:
That's what I was thinking, UK sales have been abysmal. They should ship half of those to the US or another European country that buys stuff. I'm just joking, mainly, but if some UK stores still have preorders, and the stock is this low...
Click to expand...

Seriously this is just FUD being spread probably by a retailer that hasn't sold all its yet just to try get people into a pre order frenzy
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
Just a thought about the UK market I've been having, might as well put it here, software revenues are down though that is quite possibly due to people just waiting for bomba bin pricing

however hardware sales down could be down simply due to the nature of the UK market, we tend to be a country very hungry for new tech new consoles seem to sell at a faster rate here than in other countries so leading to higher sales at the start and middle of the gen but now this gen has lasted an abnormally long time everyone who would want a console has already got one, this can be compared to the USA where the DS still sells very well despite the 3ds being available and the fact the PS2 still sold very well long past the introduction of the ps3 whereas I don't think I've even seen the PS2 on sale anywhere here for at least 4 years, this carries over into other technology related areas, almost everyone I know has a smartphone and I'm pretty sure I've seen studies saying British smartphone penetration is one of the highest in the world and I definitely saw a study from a couple of years ago showing British penetration of HD televisions was the highest in the world this was despite the majority of these owners not actually having access to a HD television service to watch on them
 
L

Lucifon

Junior Member
So when we hear about it selling out we know that's more because of a lack of supply than demand itself.
 
N

not_so_special

Banned
yesteday i talked with one of the head honchos of fnac spain and he tell me nintendo give them a ridiculous low number of consoles,the zombiu pack is sellout but they still have normal an premium packs to reserve,he doesnt seem to excited abot the whole wiiu thing
 
K

kitsuneyo

Member
pitcairn55 said:
You can pre-order from Tesco. They are still this very morning listing the Wii U as available to pre-order for delivery on launch day.

I went for the ZombiU console bundle from Zavvi. I am prepared for disappointment come the fateful day...
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. Hope Zavvi comes through for you.
 
Petrae

Petrae

Member
Lucifon said:
So when we hear about it selling out we know that's more because of a lack of supply than demand itself.
Click to expand...

Arguably so, if these numbers verify. It's easy to represent a sell-out as success when the allocation number is so low, as the WiiU is potentially facing.

Hopefully the reality won't be as dire as the speculation has indicated, but seeing that expected ship numbers are already running some 10% lower than Wii, finding WiiU could be a tall order for the first few months.
 
T

thomaser

Member
It's kind of the same in Norway. The basic pack won't even come at launch day, but on December 5th. Most stores will only get one or two ZombiU bundles for launch, and none after that. The Nintendo Land Premium Pack should be easy to find, though.
 
T

TheMagician

Member
More made up garbage from CVG. I wonder if this is from the same 'source' which said the Wii U would be 'delayed' in Europe until December and perhaps even into next year? Stuff like this is completely made up.
 
M

MicH

Member
thomaser said:
It's kind of the same in Norway. The basic pack won't even come at launch day, but on December 5th. Most stores will only get one or two ZombiU bundles for launch, and none after that. The Nintendo Land Premium Pack should be easy to find, though.
Click to expand...
What. Is it that way for Scandinavia in general? Because in Denmark pretty much every store is still taking preorders for the basic and the premium bundles. Haven't heard anything about the basic bundle being delayed.
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
My big fear for those wanting to buy the Wii U in the US is that if supply is low I guarantee you stock is going to be held for the Black Friday ad. This most likely explains why preorders were just shut down for all retailers around the same time no matter if a store had 5 preorders or 20. So if the store is supposed to get 30 total units they will try to hold half of those for Black Friday's ad that will have a guaranteed limited quantity printed on it. Because this launches on Sunday of Thanksgiving it is not likely a second shipment will land at stores before that Friday.

So in other words an already strained supply will be even more strained in the US. Resellers win again.
 
R

radioheadrule83

Banned
People trying to say Nintendo are deliberately under shipping just to claim a sell out are being utterly daft and obviously can't remember any other UK hardware launch ever. Yes, it's long been regarded a common strategy for all of them at hardware launches, but this is different... that number (if true) is way low.


The Wii sold 105,000 in its launch weekend in the UK in 2006, this shipment (if true) is less than a quarter of that figure. Source

The PSP sold 185,000 in the UK in its first four days. Source

The 3DS sold 113,000 in its UK opening weekend. Source


The whole reason this is a story or a thread at all is because its a tiny tiny number, if true. If the figure were true it would have to be because a) they're staggering shipments to keep them available over Christmas, b) this is as a result of the near-worldwide launch, ie. this is all they can make available for the UK OR c) the UK market is so shitty that they're concentrating on other markets.
 
T

thomaser

Member
MicH said:
What. Is it that way for Scandinavia in general? Because in Denmark pretty much every store is still taking preorders for the basic and the premium bundles. Haven't heard anything about the basic bundle being delayed.
Click to expand...

It is delayed in Norway, and we have the same distributor as Denmark. Perhaps they get so few at first that they allocate all of them to Sweden and Denmark, since those are the biggest markets? Wouldn't surprise me.
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
Lyude77 said:
That's what I was thinking, UK sales have been abysmal. They should ship half of those to the US or another European country that buys stuff. I'm just joking, mainly, but if some UK stores still have preorders, and the stock is this low...
Click to expand...

Its not that easy. They would have to reconfigure each system since UK consoles are designed to be placed on the left hand side of the television.
 
A

AndTAR

Member
thomaser said:
It is delayed in Norway, and we have the same distributor as Denmark. Perhaps they get so few at first that they allocate all of them to Sweden and Denmark, since those are the biggest markets? Wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...

Denmark is among the largest scandinavian markets? I always thought our country was the smallest, most insignificant spot on the Nintendo world map. Perhaps things took off after the Wii.

For some reason, I do feel kinda safe, with my Amazon pre-order placed mid-September, a good while before they sold out. But perhaps even that was too late.
 
H

H_Prestige

Banned
Can't believe the console is coming out in 3 weeks. From how quiet things are you would think it's 6 months away. Reminds me of the Vita launch which just kind of showed up in stores one day.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
H_Prestige said:
Can't believe the console is coming out in 3 weeks. From how quiet things are you would think it's 6 months away. Reminds me of the Vita launch which just kind of showed up in stores one day.
Click to expand...

I still haven't seen a single ad or anything resembling a mere mention of it on TV. If this was Sony or MS (well, at least MS) they'd be hyping this up as the event of the year and slowly building up to some flashy mega reveal.
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
Derrick01 said:
I still haven't seen a single ad or anything resembling a mere mention of it on TV. If this was Sony or MS (well, at least MS) they'd be hyping this up as the event of the year and slowly building up to some flashy mega reveal.
Click to expand...

Well it seems there's only been one ad so far last weekend during homeland, though half of GAF sat through x factor as that was where it was supposed to be, its still over a month from release so wouldn't expect the ads to start ramping up for another week or so
 
S

snowdog1971

Banned
ScreenSplitter said:
The eBay scalpers are going to be out en masse.
Click to expand...

If they end up selling on eBay for twice the price I might be tempted to do the same thing myself, assuming I manage to get one on launch day...although I'm not sure I can stand not playing ZombiU as soon as it gets delivered!!!

But it will be a buy one, get one free situation lol
 
A

Addnan

Member
25,000 seems way too low. Can't believe it would be that, I got my order in within a few minutes of Amazon putting it up, so if it does turn out to be true hopefully I am ok.
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
Well I just got some terrible news. Apparently my credit card had to be canceled because they feared it was compromised. Phoned up Sainsbury's and the only thing I could do was cancel and reorder. Luckily I was given a £30 discount code so I didn't lose out on that. But now I see that the French retailer is warning you had to preorder before a certain date to get it so I'm really hoping this won't be the case for me since I've moved all the way to the back of the queue. Only light is that the ZombiU pack is sold out whereas the Nintendoland pack isn't.

What a day.
 
C

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
BGBW said:
Well I just got some terrible news. Apparently my credit card had to be canceled because they feared it was compromised. Phoned up Sainsbury's and the only thing I could do was cancel and reorder. Luckily I was given a £30 discount code so I didn't lose out on that. But now I see that the French retailer is warning you had to preorder before a certain date to get it so I'm really hoping this won't be the case for me since I've moved all the way to the back of the queue. Only light is that the ZombiU pack is sold out whereas the Nintendoland pack isn't.

What a day.
Click to expand...
Take the £30 and invest in some camping gear.

You're gonna need it.
 
D

DeuceGamer

Member
Why do I have a feeling that there are going to be more than a few of us with paid Pre-Orders that don't get a Wii U on Launch day?
 
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